League of Nations

[Shotsfan1993]

We've blown it yet again.

Stones has been terrible tonight and finally got penalised

 

[Gassy]

How much is Stones paid per week?

Pathetic excuse for a defender.

 

[Modernist]

You can never feel secure watching England even when we're winning, I guess its all the years of disappointments.

 

[Super_horns]

Typical England game ..

Score then look average but miss chances before finally giving one then two soft goals away .

Throw in the iffy decisions too .

 

[Gassy]

How to go from hero from zero in one year

 

[#Beebot]

It's been some time since I've seen a top level defence collectively as thick as this England one.

Man City play a fundamentally different style of football to most other teams. Stones and Walker have had that style drummed into them so hard that they don't seem to be able to contemplate any other style, but England play nothing like Man City.

England will never play like a Guardiola team so just play TAA and Gomez.

 

[Gassy]

The game management has been shocking tbh

As much as the defence has been shite, so were the tactics

 

[Ciderup]

Jeez, there was some awful defensive cock ups by us tonight! Pub football at times.

 

[GodsGift]

England finding new ways to lose semi-finals. Wouldn't be so bothered if the Dutch weren't bang average.

 

[Laker]

We were terrible and fully deserved to lose. But we were a good Sancho header and a VAR big toe away from winning that. And our defensive mistakes would be funny if it didn’t matter at all.

 

[Big Bird]

A lot to work on before the Euro's.

I'd drop Walker for Trent asap. Stones out for Gomez. Those two are prone to lapses and stupid decision making. Pickford irritates me as well. Always seems overly involved in everything. Too erratic.

Always been a believer you should get the ball into the midfield as quickly as possible and then you can look to play. John Stones taking on an attacker with just the keeper behind him is mind numbingly stupid and nobody will convince me otherwise.

I quite like us going forward when we're into the final third. We should have another good tournament if we sort out our decision making at the back.

 

[blademan89]

Fucking clowns. Forget the defensive errors, that starting midfield was laughable, delph ffs. Walker had his worst game I've ever seen so did harry. Only man to come out of that game with any credit is pickford, hes so much better for England than Everton. Another standard England showing when it matters and 20k people travel.

 

[Skinner]

Fucking clowns. Forget the defensive errors, that starting midfield was laughable, delph ffs. Walker had his worst game I've ever seen so did harry. Only man to come out of that game with any credit is pickford, hes so much better for England than Everton. Another standard England showing when it matters and 20k people travel.

Not seen much of Walker then. Praying TAA becomes our new first choice RB, with Wan-Bissaka back up, but I feel Walker is one of those managers' boys type, so will play until he retires.

Thought Sancho had a solid game personally...

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Fucking clowns. Forget the defensive errors, that starting midfield was laughable, delph ffs. Walker had his worst game I've ever seen so did harry. Only man to come out of that game with any credit is pickford, hes so much better for England than Everton. Another standard England showing when it matters and 20k people travel.

I think this group have won more games 'when it matters' than lost them haven't they? I did not expect us to beat the Dutch. They have a superior defence and midfield. There's not much to be said about comical errors at the back unless it becomes a recurring theme. Next season I imagine some more cultured midfielders - comfortable with a possession game - will enter the squad like Foden, Maddison, Grealish etc.

 

[blademan89]

Not seen much of Walker then. Praying TAA becomes our new first choice RB, with Wan-Bissaka back up, but I feel Walker is one of those managers' boys type, so will play until he retires.

Thought Sancho had a solid game personally...

Yep taa needs to be playing, agree about sancho as well. Dont know why we all get optimistic about England, it will always be the same, having one of the worst managers in England isnt going to help but because we beat Colombia on pens and Sweden hes a hero. Were that desperate for success as a nation the excitement gets a grip on us all way too easily, I mean there must have been 20k English in that ground last night, no one has support like it in Europe.

 

[Craig]

How much is Stones paid per week?

Pathetic excuse for a defender.

Fight me!

 

[Gassy]

Fight me!

If that's what you teach your youngsters, no wonder you're getting relegated next season

 

[JJ1532]

Wait, are people actually annoyed at last night? Am I only the only that didn't give a shit? It's a brand new tournament, we played 4 games to get there and yet people are treating it like we've blown an opportunity at the World Cup.

I couldn't care less about the performance or result, or this rubbish about "still no tournament final since 66' guff. It's a glorified friendly in my eyes, nothing more. I mean, had we won it, would we have been cracking out the champagne or organising a parade through London? Nope, so I don't know why people are losing their minds now that we've lost.

I hope Southgate learns from what went wrong and makes adjustments over the next 12 months. Be interesting to see who emerges as options for the Euros and who falls away. Pressure will be on him heading into that tournament and he'll go from hero to zero very quickly if the team fall short.

 

[Ciderup]

All 3 Dutch goals were defensive howlers, that's what I found frustrating. It's as if our shower didn't want to win.
What on earth has happened to Stones? I thought he looked the real deal a few years ago, yet he was dreadful last night. McGuire wasn't much better to be fair. I blame Bobby Reid personally. He gave Stones a right hard time at the Etihad a couple of years ago and Stones hasn't been the same since.
It doesn't really matter how poor we were last night but that was garbage! A repeat of that defensive performance against a decent side and we'll get humiliated.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

There seemed to be a mismatch of defensive and midfield selections. The back line was set up to play out, but the midfield was built to run and press and not much else.

 

[JJ1532]

All 3 Dutch goals were defensive howlers, that's what I found frustrating. It's as if our shower didn't want to win.
What on earth has happened to Stones? I thought he looked the real deal a few years ago, yet he was dreadful last night. McGuire wasn't much better to be fair. I blame Bobby Reid personally. He gave Stones a right hard time at the Etihad a couple of years ago and Stones hasn't been the same since.
It doesn't really matter how poor we were last night but that was garbage! A repeat of that defensive performance against a decent side and we'll get humiliated.

Point out a decent side we'll face between now and Euro finals. France and......

Belgium can be good on their day, but they are very hit and miss most of the time. They lost 5-2 to the Swiss and don't blow teams away very much. The Dutch are coming back into it, but as we saw, are still lacking the same firepower they packed 10 years ago. Italy aren't what they used to be, Germany are in transition, Spain aren't brilliant and we beat them to make the Semi-Finals. Portugal are propped up by Ronaldo, they're screwed once he retires.

I honestly think the days of getting humiliated are behind us. I might look silly in 12 months time if we get dumped out of the groups at the Euros. But I feel optimistic about this group. Southgate is showing some worrying tendancies, like favouring certain players. Walker isn't undroppable given the depth at that position. Playing a half fit Kane was also a mistake. He needs to embrace the improving depth we have, especially in certain positions.

But I'm optimistic we can have a good Euros and build on what was achieved last summer and through qualifying for this tournament. Maybe others don't see it that way, but I'm sick of being negative about England. Im going into next year with some positivity for a change.

 

[Ciderup]

Does Declan Rice cause the imbalance in midfield? Good player most certainly but he seemed to be playing as an extra defender at times meaning we were totally outnumbered in the midfield meaning our defence had nobody to play it to. Maybe we're getting into a Frank Lampard / Steven Gerrard situation where he can only play if certain others don't?
I'm positive about our future but that was poor last night, for the first time in a while.

 

[Skinner]

There seemed to be a mismatch of defensive and midfield selections. The back line was set up to play out, but the midfield was built to run and press and not much else.

Straight from the get go you could see we were missing someone like Winks, Delph and Rice didn't drop to give our back line options.

 

[Ciderup]

Straight from the get go you could see we were missing someone like Winks, Delph and Rice didn't drop to give our back line options.

Winks is just what we're missing TBH, a proper 'link' player. He's going to be a regular for England methinks.
Bloody good player too!

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

 

[blademan89]

Winks is just what we're missing TBH, a proper 'link' player. He's going to be a regular for England methinks.
Bloody good player too!

We had 4 players playing in the champions league final on Saturday, the highest level it gets. Holland had 2, they play both of theirs all game, we play fucking none of ours, fucking southgate ffs.

 

[JJ1532]

Jesus christ dude, give it a rest. We'll know in 12 months what Southgate truly is. If he's a fraud as you think, then he'll cock up the Euros, we'll fall short and you can say I told you so. But all we've done so far under him is make it to the Semi-Finals of the World Cup(yeah, yeah, easy route, whatever) and reach the semi-finals of this tournament, getting out of a difficult group to do so. We'll canter through to the Euros, probably get a favourable group and then the judgement can begin. We'll see then whether last summer was a fluke or not. Until then, maybe chill out a bit?

 

[blademan89]

Jesus christ dude, give it a rest. We'll know in 12 months what Southgate truly is. If he's a fraud as you think, then he'll cock up the Euros, we'll fall short and you can say I told you so. But all we've done so far under him is make it to the Semi-Finals of the World Cup(yeah, yeah, easy route, whatever) and reach the semi-finals of this tournament, getting out of a difficult group to do so. We'll canter through to the Euros, probably get a favourable group and then the judgement can begin. We'll see then whether last summer was a fluke or not. Until then, maybe chill out a bit?

Our win away at Spain is our only really good win under him, I'm not one for being negative about my teams but last night pissed me off however important it is, just play you're best team ffs, I believe we have a good side in their somewhere, the move for the disallowed goal was superb, I dont want him gone I want him to succeed, hopefully he does.

 

[Super_horns]

Well least we seem to be winning penalty shoot outs now..

Ronaldo earns another title but he wasn't the match winner this time.